Fermenting seaweed into methane-power

"No more seaweed topics," I begged mournfully. "There's only so much I can say about it." Well, was I ever wrong - the latest thing is not eating it, but turning seaweed into electricity. Tons (literally) of seaweed washes up on the Japanese coast in an unsightly as well as un-scently manner, and disposal is no fun. Plus it absorbs pollutants from the water, so it ends up contaminating the beaches. Now, though, the Tokyo Gas Co. team up with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) has produced sweet results: by March 2007 they'll have the global first that is a power plant run entirely off seaweed. They crush it into tomato-paste-like sludge, and add microorganisms which cause the muck to expel methane. Presto, gas power. The test facility powers 20 houses right now, but that's just the beginning of Japan's seaweed (and kelp, and sea lettuce) revolution. [GT]

Energy From Seaweed: New Energy Source to Debut Next Year

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